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I saw this recently: "We lost the war. Losing wars often puts you in a worse position. That's one reason starting wars you are unlikely to win is a bad idea." h
by geofft 5y ago
I saw this recently: "We lost the war. Losing wars often puts you in a worse position. That's one reason starting wars you are unlikely to win is a bad idea." https://twitter.com/nberlat/status/1426941800468652039 https://twitter.com/nberlat/status/1426941800468652039
That should be obvious to everyone, but in 2001 it was unpatriotic and politically incorrect to ask whether the US was capable of winning the war.
- trynumber9 5y agoAs part of the Doha agreement the Taliban agreed not to support Al-Qaeda. Not a victory but it was basically the US casus belli.
- wiredfool 5y agoYeah. But there were a significant number of people who grew up seeing the Russians get beaten in Afghanistan, thought it was a decent lesson to learn without being involved, and then lo and behold, your country gets into a land war in Asia and gets to learn it for themselves.
- mindslight 5y agoI'd go further and say that in 2001 "the war" wasn't even that well defined. It seemed to be more about the action of attacking rather than any coherent vision. Iraq was at least up for debate, whereas Afghanistan was like well of course we need to attack them "back" how could you think otherwise?